Welcome to the Lesson:

Silly Animal Problems

writing an original story that has been thoughtfully sequenced

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book Dog Breath by Dav Pilkey. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.

If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

Dav Pilkey’s story, Dog Breath, involves a family's distress over their dog, Hally Tosis, and his horrible breath.After enjoying the story, the writer will plan a detailed and sequenced story about an animal with a silly problem. While planning and revising, students will think about their use of memorable details and their story's pacing. Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is idea development; the writer's goal is to create a unique story idea that is made memorable by its use of details. The support trait in this assignment is organization; a sequence of events will be planned by the writer, and the pacing of those events will be thoughtfully planned.

Recipient of the NNWP's Excellent Writing Lesson Award:

Because of the quality of its resources and ideas, this WritingFix lesson was selected by the Northern Nevada Writing Project as November 2007's Writing Lesson of the Month. It was e-mailed to thousands of teachers who are members of the NNWP's Writing Lesson of the Month Teacher Network.

To quickly access all the WritingFix lessons that have been chosen as "Lesson of the Month," click here to visit the on-line archive. You can have a link to a high-quality writing lesson sent to you every month.